Some airports around the country were getting back to normal Saturday after President Trump issued an order to pay beleaguered TSA agents — but there were no signs of urgency from Congress for a permanent fix to the federal funding fight which has caused weeks of chaos.
There were no immediate indications of serious talks in Congress to find a solution that could resolve the now nearly 60-day shutdown, congressional aides told The Post.
Instead, lawmakers skipped town for a two-week recess.
Massive airport security lines that travelers experienced Friday were getting back to normal Saturday, after President Trump ordered TSA agents get paid through existing funds. Daniel HeuerStill, Trump’s decision to use existing Homeland Security funds to pay struggling Transportation Security Administration agents — and to send ICE agents to help speed up security lines — appeared to be paying off.
“The airport I went through yesterday, the line’s already decreased. They’re not where they need to be, but the plan’s in place,” White House border czar Tom Homan told Fox News Channel’s Saturday in America. More ICE agents were expected to complete training and be on the job soon, he added.
TSA wait times at New York airports were back to normal Saturday. The published wait at LaGuardia’s Terminal B was just four minutes.
It wasn’t smooth sailing everywhere.
At Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, flyers were still being encouraged to show up four hours ahead of their flight times.
The lines infuriated travelers, and were brought on by unpaid TSA agents quitting or not showing up to work during the shutdown. REUTERSAt Baltimore’s Thurgood Marshall International Airport, people were waiting up to three hours to check their bags – and another 21/2 to 3 hours to get through security, WBAL TV reported.
The long-term solution, however, must come from Congress.
The Senate passed a bill in the early morning hours Friday which funded the Department of Homeland Security, but skipped providing money for ICE — a demand of Democrats. GOP lawmakers planned to then take care of Immigration, Customs and Enforcement down the road in a reconciliation bill they knew could pass with only Republican votes.
But House members balked, instead passing their own version of stop gap funding for the whole Homeland Security Department, which Senate Democrats have so far refused to support.
Both sides then left Washington DC for a break that will extend through the Easter and Passover holidays.
The Senate position on funding will prevail, Texas Senator Ted Cruz said Saturday — and Republicans will get the last laugh.”
Even though every Democrat is a hard no on funding border security, we are going to come back, we are going to fund ICE and border patrol for 10 years,” he said while appearing at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference.
Next stop — recess: The travel mayhem appeared to spur congressional action, but the Republican House decided not to take up a bipartisan bill that the Senate passed before its members left town. Daniel Heuer“And the consequence of Elizabeth Warren and the rest of these commies is we’re going to increase the funding for ICE and Border Patrol.”
TSA struggled with its longest wait times in history last week, Deputy Administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill told Congress Wednesday. The mayhem came just before a spike in spring break travel.
“America’s air travel system has reached its breaking point,” the president said while signing an order Friday to pay TSA agents. “I have determined that these circumstances constitute an emergency situation compromising the Nation’s security.”
TSA workers “should begin seeing paychecks as early as Monday,” said Trump’s new Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin.
TSA agents had been quitting and missing work in substantial numbers while not being paid during the shutdown that began Feb. 14..
“It’s an absolute failure that they’re not going to paid, that it needs that kind of intervention,” Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) told Fox. He said TSA agents tell him they’re exausted, frustrated, and “broke.”






